The A-Z of Sherlock Holmes Performers - A Special Tribute & Contribution. A blog piece by Ray Wilcockson (co-author and frequent contributor with Howard Ostrom on many essays in The Diogenes Club Library)​"In this case, the horse's mouth is Sherlockian media expert, Howard Ostrom of Florida, whose alphabetical index of the world's Sherlock Holmes performers since 1893 recently passed a milestone: 3000 entries. The A-Z may be viewed HERE on the "No Place Like Holmes" website hosted by Ross K. Foad and this special post is by way of tribute to an admirable endeavour.

I am delighted to see both these gentlemen in the record. Ross has the distinction of being the first to play Sherlock Holmes in a web series and he has just returned from a self-imposed hiatus to trail NPLH series 6. In the stories, Holmes is, to my mind, revealed as more than a detective in his love of music and Ross comes across as a man of more (creative) parts too in the personal statement that introduces his trailer. I think this a salutary lesson for all Sherlockians.Read the entire blog here.

"The Mary Morstan Mysteries is a spin-off of the dramedy web series No Place Like Holmes. While the latter take Sherlock Holmes and Watson and, with the in-universe assistance of a demonic ritual, place them in modern times, The Mary Morstan Mysteries tell the story of Watson's wife and her Victorian solo adventures.

The Mary Morstan Mysteries play faster and looser with canon than any of the aforementioned Sherlock incarnations, but the result is a funny, unpredictable, and endlessly creative story with his roots in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, but its execution thoroughly in the Internet Age."Read more the entire piece here:

Today we reveal another guest star for the upcoming first episode of the 6th Series of No Place Like Holmes.

KC Flanagan appears as the client of the episode, Richard Knox. Knox is a no nonsense solicitor with an aristocratic background whose dirty family dealings force him into using a private detective as opposed to the normal law abiding procedures.

Earlier this year I announced that I would be going on a hiatus from this site for an unspecified amount of time, and that I would not be releasing any reviews, web series, documentaries, or putting out anything else new related to the site. The only exception I made for this was continuing to upload the updated essays in The Diogenes Library section on behalf of Howard Ostrom.

I have been working on the NPLH brand and all it encompasses for close to 7-years, and up to the point of my hiatus nearly every waking moment of spare time went into working on something Holmes related. A combination of sheer burnout with a growing feeling of nobody caring whether I did this or not really had begun to eat me up inside. There were also other factors, but we will get to them later.

This site receives around 1000-5000 views a day, but the feedback, while frequently exceedingly positive, was often few and far in-between. Sometimes it became hard not to think that I making work that merely echoed in the ether. In addition, when I would ask a favour or post requesting help for such things as voting for me in a contest or liking a Facebook page, it was often to deadening silence. Yet, all the while the viewership kept increasing, and even with no new material people have kept on coming for months.

This comic illustrates this point wonderfully.

Many people were very quick to draw scorn with my views, and were very vocal in telling me so. Again, I refer you to the above comic. Many felt it necessary to tell me that I should do it anyway, and that the process mattered more than the outcome.

I would say that this is good advice, you should do something because you love it, which I did, very much so. But should you stay in a relationship and “go through the process” even if the other person didn’t love you or show appreciation? And would you stay in a job that didn’t value you at all?

I have walked on both occasions in these scenarios, so why would now be any different? I know my worth, and I am sorry that some people do not value themselves the same way. Each and every time I wind up in a far better scenario and place, and my hiatus from here has been no different.

I have an insatiable need to create. A day without working on something creative is a day wasted to me. I have not been on a formal holiday since 2004. Why? Because, like Holmes, not working bores me rigid. The question was never over why create for the sake of creating, but where or what form that creation should take. The argument for it staying focused on this site was not stacking up to be a compelling one. There was more good to be done elsewhere for myself and many others.

Others told me that I wasn’t a true Sherlock Holmes fan for doing that, and that I was only using the Holmes bandwagon to springboard myself elsewhere. Really? I spent 6-years of my life providing entertainment and education to a select fan base in the assumption that it would open every door elsewhere? Nope.

Not sinking every waking moment of spare time into this has been nothing but beneficial to my career and allowed me to gain a lot more notoriety as an actor, writer, and director. Based upon a system of the number of times cast , views, and recommendations, I now rank in the top 5% talent in The Star Now database, a site with over 1 million members worldwide. The Stage newspaper has reached out to congratulate me for my The Faction of Farce comedy group. TV show appearances, video game voice overs, radio plays, short films and requests to direct/produce have all made up what I have been up to this past year.

Which brings me to another reason why I had to go, and it is a reason that both Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone (the two greatest) would understand. Sherlock Holmes steals your soul. I understand exactly what Jeremy Brett meant when he said that. This is not him making an exaggerated theatrical type statement. There is sense in what he says.

For the longest time, people assumed that this was all I was capable of doing, all I had done, or all I did do! And after a while you begin to believe it. I have no problems forever being associated with Sherlock Holmes, far from it. I am extremely proud to be the first actor to have played him in a web series. He is still my favourite character to play, and I am very proud of what I have done with this site and all the wonderful people I have met as a result of doing it. But there is a problem when you are no longer sure who you are without it. I became scared that once this all came to an end that I would have no identity whatsoever. That the cast would eventually fall away and people wouldn’t have any reason to talk to me, that this was all people saw me as, and not what else I could do or the person underneath. It sounds clichéd, but I felt that I was a nobody without it, and that is where it became terrifying. To think that your whole identity as a human being is intertwined with the works of someone else’s fictional character is a strange feeling.

Now, combine that fear with the burnout and underappreciation feeling, and I do hope that you may start to understand my feelings behind this.

I had to step away to prove to myself that I was so much more, and now that I have, I can pick up the key and, once again, return Holmes.

Lastly, to the people who have ever shown support over the years, have ever written in via the contact form,written an NPLH related article, commented on a video/Facebook post, had me as a guest speaker, asked me on a podcast, offered additional finds to essays, wanted to send me a birthday card, or asked me for an autograph or a book review - thank you.

I cannot even begin to express what these mean to me, and it is for these interactions with fellow Holmes fans that make this so worthwhile. It is these interactions that have helped me know when something worked, what to do more on, and to keep on working at the formula so that I could strive to make it even better for you.

Enjoy the trailer for NPLH series 6, and do be sure to check back regularly, I have bloody lot of content to come out over the next 3-months!